Is Tomato a fruit or a vegetable?/¿Es el tomate una fruta o un vegetal?

Question

some times i heard that tomato is a fruit but sometimes i heard its a vegetable..so please answer me either it is a fruit or a vegetable....

algunas veces oí que el tomate es una fruta pero oí a veces que su un vegetale. .so por favor contestarme cualquiera él es una fruta o un vegetal?

• Pleaser remember that correct spelling and capitalization are mandatory on this site, welcome to the forum:) - 00494d19 Jan 15, 2011

Answer 1

Hola ash afshan,

Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. Therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry, but from a culinary point of view, a tomato is a vegetable.

Other botanical fruits used as vegetables are eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes such as zucchini and pumpkins. Also a bean pod is technically a fruit.

The vegetable is a term used for other edible parts of plants (such as cabbage leaves, celery, and potatoes) which are not the fruit of the plant.

Miguel

• Right on the button mate , you are totally correct . - ray76 Jan 15, 2011

Answer 2

It's a fruit because the part you eat has seeds, as far as I know.

Potatoes, carrots, leafy vegetables have their seeds in the part of the plant we don't eat.

Hasta donde yo sepa, es una fruta porque la parte que comes tiene semillas.

Las patatas, las zanahorias y los vegetales de hojas verde tienen las semillas en las partes de la planta que no comemos.

• its a vegetable i now it - looloo54 Jan 15, 2011
• I've been told do many times here in England that it's a fruit, maybe they came to a different conclusion here. - galsally Jan 16, 2011

Answer 3

It is a fruit, but legally it is a vegetable in the USA due to a Supreme Court ruling.

• jejeje, is this a joke? hilarious, I think we will soon get a court ruling like this one too, jeje, we get a lot of court rulings these days. - 00494d19 Jan 15, 2011
• Unfortunately, it is not a joke. You would think the Supreme Court would have had more important things to do, even 100 years ago. - lorenzo9 Jan 15, 2011
• one wonders if the members of the Supreme Court are also vegetables..... - galsally Jan 16, 2011